Arvens Technology Inc (ATI) is focused on improving pennycress as a commercial crop and creating new energy applications through innovative technologies. Field Pennycress (Thlaspi arvens) is a winter annual grown in the Midwest corn-belt on unused land following the corn harvest and prior to the spring planting of soybeans. This means that farmers can continue to grow corn and soybeans in the traditional way but add this new crop in the winter allowing them to earn additional income with underutilized land and equipment assets. Pennycress produces seeds with 36% oil, twice that of soybeans, with a composition that is suitable for conversion to biodiesel, aviation biofuels and fuels and other chemical products. Approximately 40 million acres of land are available each year for the winter production of Pennycress under this strategy, with no impact to the food supply or critical wildlife habitats. Because it is a non-food crop and does not displace a food crop, Pennycress has no negative Indirect Land Use impacts. As an energy crop, Pennycress has the potential to produce approximately 4 billion gallons of liquid transportation fuels per year. Farmers will earn more than $4 billion in extra revenue and several thousand new jobs will be created. The firm has developed a variety of optimum strategies for the most effective farming practices to grow pennycress. One new innovation is that pennycress can now be planted in the fall by aerial seeding from an airplane. This has the important benefit of allowing earlier planting as well as reducing the workload of farmers during the busy fall harvest season.
